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Stalker told his heavily pregnant wife: ‘I’m in love with your husband’

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  • Woman frequently turned up on the set of his gardening shows pretending to be his producer as well as breaking into the celebrity designer’s home
  • Stalker told his heavily pregnant wife: ‘I’m in love with your husband’

By
Luke Salkeld


PUBLISHED:

11:47 EST, 30 April 2012

|

UPDATED:

19:16 EST, 30 April 2012


Unwelcome attention: Diarmuid, 47, endured months of fear after being followed by the crazed fan, who frequently turned up on sets of gardening shows

Unwelcome attention: Diarmuid, 47, endured months of fear after being followed by the crazed fan, who frequently turned up on sets of gardening shows

Gardening TV presenter Diarmuid Gavin
has told how he was stalked by a crazed female fan who broke into his
home and confronted his heavily-pregnant wife.

Mr Gavin, who has hosted Gardeners’
World on the BBC, said he endured months of fear after being followed by
the woman who frequently turned up on the set of shows.

He said it was ‘hard to get the police
to do anything’ but the BBC hired a private detective and after Mr
Gavin and Alan Titchmarsh challenged the unnamed stalker at a flower
show her disturbing behaviour ended abruptly.

Mr Gavin, 47, recalled: ‘I’ve had some
strange fans over the years but she was a proper stalker and for a long
time I was the only one who’d ever seen this woman. She was always
there.

‘It got so bad I was scared I’d arrive
on set one day and someone would say, ‘‘this is your new producer’’ or
I’d go home and find her having tea with my wife.

‘She broke into my house. My wife,
Justine, was there and she was pregnant. This woman said to her, ‘‘I’m
in love with your husband’’, and my wife said, ‘‘in that case, you need
to see a doctor’’.’

Yesterday the Mail reported that for
this year’s Chelsea Flower Show Mr Gavin has designed a seven-storey
‘skyscraper’ made of scaffolding poles topped off with a rusty car and a
clump of nettles.

He said the 80ft-high garden was inspired by the
Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

His design for last year’s show, The Irish Sky Garden, was a garden within a pod suspended from a crane.

Confrontation: Diarmuid and his wife Justine Keen. 'This woman said to her,

Confrontation: Diarmuid and his wife Justine Keen. The woman told his wife she was in love with Diarmuid when she broke into her house when she was heavily pregnant

Dairmuid,
who grew up in Dublin, first decided to become a gardener after
resolving to change the identikit borders of his middle-class suburban
neighbours.

His first job
was in a Dublin garden centre and he then won a place at the College of
Amenity Horticulture in Dublin’s Botanic Gardens.

The determined gardening ace then set
up a garden design business but his inventive and unorthodox approach
initially failed to take off – leaving him homeless aged 30.

He persevered and featured at the Chelsea Flower Show in 1996.

Alan Titchmarsh interviewed Dairmuid following his success and his television career took off.

Diarmuid has since appeared on Home Front in the Garden, This Morning, Diarmuid’s Big Adventure and Strictly Come Dancing.

‘I was very intimidated at first – it was scary but unbelievable at the same time,’ he said.

Sting operation: Diarmuid, far right, and fellow television gardener Alan Titchmarsh, centre, decided to confront the woman and managed to lure her in front of the camera at a flower show and then the woman relented

Sting operation: Diarmuid, far right, and fellow television gardener Alan Titchmarsh, centre, decided to confront the woman and managed to lure her in front of the camera at a flower show and then the woman relented

‘I always had faith something good would happen, though I never once thought I’d become a TV gardener. That was never on the radar.

‘When I thought about it, I thought of Gardener’s World, which was never a programme I watched or had any interest in.

‘But when nobody has ever asked you to do something and it’s always been such a fight just to be wanted, you’re going to go for it.’

He quickly became known as the bad
boy of gardening, but had to reign back his party lifestyle after the
birth of his daughter Eppie in 2004.

Last
year, his exhibition at the Chelsea Flower Show, The Irish Sky Garden,
was a large garden pod suspended by a 250-tonne crane over a ground
garden.

It has since been purchased by the Irish Government and will be put on permanent display in a public park in Cork.

Sky high: Last year, Diarmuid's exhibition at the Chelsea Flower Show, The Irish Sky Garden, was a large garden pod suspended by a 250-tonne crane over a ground garden

Sky high: Last year, Diarmuid’s exhibition at the Chelsea Flower Show, The Irish Sky Garden, was a large garden pod suspended by a 250-tonne crane over a ground garden

This year, his Westland Magical Tower will be the show’s tallest and biggest exhibit, soaring 80ft in the sky.

He added: ‘I couldn’t create something that was for pure beauty or a space to relax in, but so many people can do pretty gardens better than me.

‘All I’ve ever wanted to do was something that grabs people and makes them smile.’

Diarmuid Gavin was the guest speaker at Floral Guernsey’s Spring Festival Week, sponsored by Resolution Limited.

Here’s what other readers have said. Why not add your thoughts,
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The comments below have been moderated in advance.



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Dishy guy! Great designs! Clever wife!

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I still remember the giant mirrored egg he inflicted on a garden in luton when I lived there…..Pitiful. And as for the potato – faced imbecile being a “hearthrob”, well, I give up.

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I can’t imagine teenage girls screaming as they run after him in the street to be perfectly honest.

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Great new idea for a teatime cop show! Call it ‘Diamond Titchy’!

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Will never forget in The Apprentice a few years ago, contestants had to ask celebs for things to give towards a chariy auction, and Diarmuid gave a £7,000 motorbike!! Eamonn Holmes gave tickets to see his breakfast tv show being filmed.

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I might be wrong but I dont think he has ever “hosted” GW. I think he may have been a presenter or appeared in some insert films but he has never “hosted” it.

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Heartthrob is taking the description a tad too far!

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. This woman said to her, ‘‘I’m in love with your husband’’, and my wife said, ‘‘in that case, you need to see a doctor’’.’
Haha what a put down !!!!

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He’s more weed than oak.

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The Damien Hirst of the gardening world. Remember the story about the Emperor’s new clothes?

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